"The reality is the President knows we're in a long war with a determined
enemy, and has said so from the start."

-White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, 9/30/06

MYTH #1: Woodward Says The Facts Of A May 24 Intelligence Assessment
Refuted The President's Forecasts In A Chicago Speech Two Days Earlier.
(Bob Woodward, State Of Denial, 2006)

FACT: President Bush Knows We Are In A Tough, Critical Struggle And
Consistently Reminds The American People Of This, Including In His Chicago
Remarks. In Chicago, the President said: "Our nation has been through
three difficult years in Iraq. And the way forward will bring more days of
challenge and loss." (President Bush, Remarks, Chicago, IL, 5/22/06)

President Bush: "The Path To Freedom Is Always One Of Struggle And
Sacrifice. And In Iraq, Our Brave Men And Women In Uniform Have Accepted
The Struggle And Have Made The Sacrifice." (President Bush, Remarks,
Chicago, IL, 5/22/06)

President Bush: "The [Iraqi] Government Is Still A Work In
Progress, And Overcoming Longstanding Divisions Will Take Time. Iraq's New
Leaders Know They Have A Great Deal Of Work Ahead To Broaden The Base Of
Their Government And To Unite The People." (President Bush, Remarks,
Chicago, IL, 5/22/06)

President Bush: "And I Can Understand Why People Are Concerned
About Whether Or Not Our Strategy Can Succeed, Because Our Progress Is
Incremental. Freedom Is Moving, But It's In Incremental Steps."
(President Bush, Remarks, Chicago, IL, 5/22/06)

President Bush's December 2005 Address To The Nation: "Yet Our Work
Is Not Done. There Is More Testing And Sacrifice Before Us." "Since the
removal of Saddam, this war, like other wars in our history, has been
difficult. The mission of American troops in urban raids and desert
patrols, fighting Saddam loyalists and foreign terrorists, has brought
danger and suffering and loss. ... The work in Iraq has been especially
difficult - more difficult than we expected. Reconstruction efforts and the
training of Iraqi security forces started more slowly than we hoped. We
continue to see violence and suffering, caused by an enemy that is
determined and brutal, unconstrained by conscience or the rules of war. ...
The terrorists will continue to have the coward's power to plant roadside
bombs and recruit suicide bombers. And you will continue to see the grim
results on the evening news." (President Bush, Address To The Nation,
Washington, DC, 12/18/05)

FACT: Bremer Has Said His Request Was Considered. BREMER: "[Rumsfeld]
said he'd received it and would consider it and he did he consider it."
(NBC's "Meet The Press," 1/15/06)

FACT: Sec. Rumsfeld Has Said Bremer's Request Was Considered. RUMSFELD:
"Just before he left he sent a memorandum to me indicating that he thought
there should be more troops, and it was within a matter of weeks before he
departed. And I took that and sat down with General Myers, the chairman of
the Joint Chiefs, and said, this is a reasonable proposal from a reasonable
person; let's look at it. And he took it down into the Joint Staff and the
tank and had the chiefs - and they spent several weeks in making
evaluations with respect to it, and at some moment came back to me - I
acknowledged receiving the memo from Jerry Bremer when I received it, told
him what I was going to do with it, giving it to General Myers." (Sec.
Donald Rumsfeld, Press Briefing, 1/12/06)

FACT: Gen. Pace Has Said Bremer's Request Was Considered. PACE: "Sir, we
did a very thorough analysis of that recommendation and when we got done,
all the chiefs agreed with the commanders in the field that the numbers of
troops in the field then, as now, was appropriate to what we were
fighting." (Gen. Peter Pace, Press Briefing, 1/12/06)

Tony Snow: "The Idea That Somehow The President Rejects Or Ignores
Advice Is Simply Wrong." "There is a chain of command, and the chain of
command involves a lot of people, and the President will give differing
advice. But the idea that somehow the President rejects or ignores advice
is simply wrong. And the President - and so what you have here are people
making serious determinations. Donald Rumsfeld is the Secretary of Defense,
and in the chain of command, he is the person who will make the
recommendations. What you have not heard, I don't think, are the Generals
involved in the theaters saying, I asked for something and I didn't get it.
Tommy Franks' book is replete with discussions of that. And you can ask the
Generals in the field, because the President has said it over and over
again, if they ask for it, they'll get it." (Tony Snow, Press Briefing,
9/29/06)

FACT: According To State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack, The
Recollections Portrayed By Woodward Do Not Reflect Tenet And Black's 9/11
Commission Testimony. "But Rice and other State Department officials
denied [Woodward's claim], noting that the report of the Sept. 11
commission, which had sworn testimony from Tenet and others at the meeting,
made no mention of the July 10 encounter. 'The recollections as portrayed
in the Woodward book in no way reflect the public and private testimony
under oath of those individuals to the 9/11 commission,' said Sean
McCormack, the State Department spokesman." (David E. Sanger, "White House
Disputes Book's Account Of Rifts On Iraq," The New York Times, 9/30/06)

FACT: Card Has Made Clear That Woodward Ignored The Situation's Context.
"'Right after the election, I went to Camp David and talked to the
president, and we talked about a lot of changes, starting with the chief of
staff,' Mr. Card said, recounting how he used to tote around what he called
his 'hit by a bus book,' a notebook of lists of potential replacements for
senior White House staff members and top cabinet officials. 'It's not
inaccurate to say that we talked about Rumsfeld,' he said. 'I can
understand why Bob would try to create a climate around these
conversations.' But he added: 'There was no campaign, and I didn't go out
and solicit others to back any view about getting rid of anyone. I could
talk about these things with the president, and plant seeds, because there
is a cadence to life in Washington and you raise these issues
periodically.' Mr. Card acknowledged that he renewed the question of
replacing Mr. Rumsfeld this year, but again insisted that it was not part
of a specific effort to single out the defense secretary for removal."
(David E. Sanger, "White House Disputes Book's Account Of Rifts On Iraq,"
The New York Times, 9/30/06)